1553 


UC-NRLF 


M3 


HONESTY 


BY   JAMES   BURR1LL  ANGELL,  LL.D., 
PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN 


A  BACCALAUREATE  DISCOURSE 
DELIVERED  JUNE  17,  1906 


DJ 
H7AC 


HONESTY 


BACCALAUREATE  DISCOURSE 

BY  PRESIDENT  ANGELL,  DELIVERED  JUNE  17 }  i^t>4> 

Each  graduating  class  as  it  steps  forth  from  this 
hall  into  the  world  finds  itself  confronted  with  problems 
peculiar  to  its  time.  In  this  hurrying  American  life  no 
one  year  presents  exactly  the  same  phases  as  another  to 
those  who  embark  upon  its  tides. 

One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the 
past  year  in  this  country,  it  will  be  generally  agreed,  is 
the  wide -spread  outbreak  of  dishonesty  in  high  places. 
Men  holding  the  most  important  fiduciary  trusts  and  re- 
ceiving exorbitant  salaries  for  their  positions  have  proved 
criminally  false  to  their  trusts.  United  States  senators 
have  been  convicted  of  gross  frauds  upon  the  government. 
Great  corporations,  rendered  almost  omnipotent  by  their 
vast  aggregation  of  capital,  have  unscrupulously  used 
their  power  to  inflict  great  hardships  on  the  common 
people  who  were  their  helpless  victims.  Bank  officers  in 
their  greed  have  wrecked  the  institutions  committed  to 
their  care  and  cheated  the  widow  and  the  orphan  out  of 
their  scanty  possessions.  As  our  daily  newspapers  have 
for  months  come  freighted  with  the  stories  of  these  ini- 
quities, we  have  been  shocked  and  often  driven  almost 
to  despondency  while  we  asked  whether  honesty  had 
fled  from  the  earth,  and  whether  any  career  is  possible 
for  an  honorable  man. 

But  fortunately  as  we  turn  our   eyes   away   from 


these  criminals  to  the  great  mass  of  the  common  people, 
a  brighter  picture  greets  the  eye.  Everywhere  we  see 
the  most  gratifying  manifestations  of  the  moral  sound -| 
ness  of  our  countrymen  at  large.  They  share  to  the  full 
our  indignation  at  the  perpetrators  of  the  crimes  we 
have  named,  and  at  the  misdemeanors  of  the  political 
corruptionists  who  have  plundered  some  of  our  principal 
cities  and  grown  fat  on  the  spoils  of  parties.  With  an 
energy  which  makes  our  hearts  tingle  with  delight  we 
have  seen  them  dethroning  bosses  who  have  been  for 
years  in  power.  On  all  hands  they  are  calling  for  the 
enactment  of  laws  that  will  prevent  the  intolerable 
abuses  from  which  they  have  suffered  and  for  the  vigor- 
ous and  unsparing  prosecution  of  rascals  of  high  and  of 
low  degree.  A  more  sane  and  wholesome  state  of  public 
feeling  has  never  been  seen.  When  one  looks  into  the 
faces  of  these  honest  and  stalwart  supporters  of  the 
right,  one  need  not  doubt  whether  in  their  company 
there  is  a  career  for  an  honorable  man. 

And  furthermore  have  we  not  all  felt  new  faith  in 
the  virtue  of  our  nation,  as  during  the  last  few  weeks  we 
have  seen  the  extraordinary  manifestations  of  sympathy 
and  generosity  called  forth  by  the  great  calamity  in  Cal- 
ifornia. From  every  town  and  hamlet,  from  the  homes 
of  the  poorest  as  well  as  of  the  rich  the  contributions  for 
the  needy  have  poured  in  with  such  profusion  that  it  seems 
that  there  is  no  heart  in  all  this  wide  land  too  cold  to  be 
unmoved  by  the  sight  of  suffering.  We  cannot  believe 
that  such  a  people  is  given  over  to  iniquity. 

So  the  young  graduate  fmdshimself  between  two 
fires.  On  the  one  hand  now  that  the  passion  for  getting 
rich  is  at  a  height  before  unknown  and  is  so  generally 
prevalent  that  he  can  hardly  be  expected  to  escape  it 
altogether,  he  is  surrounded  by  men  of  culture  and  social 
position  who  are  yielding  to  its  power,  sacrificing  char- 
acter and  risking  reputation  in  the  unscrupulous  chase 
after  wealth.  Temptations  and  tempters  beset  him  on 
every  side.  Examples  of  pro'minent  but  unscrupulous 

-2— 


men  appeal  to  him  daily  and  test  his  virtue  as  in   a   fur- 
nace of  fire. 

On  the  other  hand  popular  indignation  at  dis- 
honesty and  civic  fraud  is  also  at  a  height  before  un- 
known. The  public  press  daily  harries  and  hunts  down 
these  unworthy  officials  and  capitalists  who  have  de- 
spoiled their  neighbors  and  holds  them  up  to  public  scorn 
and  contempt.  The  courts  are  binding  some  of  them, 
who  have  held  high  places  in  society,  with  the  gyves  of 
the  law  and  sheriffs  are  haling  them  to  penitentiaries. 
The  halls  of  legislation  are  ringing  with  the  cries  of  the 
people  for  laws  to  protect  them  against  the  wily  schemes 
of  such  men  as  have  in  the  past  plundered  them  with 
impunity.  And  great  hearted  benevolence  is  flooding 
the  Pacific  coast  with  gifts  of  unparalled  generosity. 

If  here  and  now  I  should  ask  you  with  which  of 
these  opposing  parties  you  sympathize,  your  answer 
would  be  ready  and  would  be  right.  If  I  should  ask  you 
which  one  you  purpose  to  join  for  life,  your  answer 
would  be  equally  prompt  and  also  right.  Youth  and 
young  manhood  in  the  American  university,  thank  God, 
still  with  few  exceptions  cherishes  pure  and  lofty  ideals 
of  duty  and  life.  Perhaps,  however,  you  may  have  al- 
ready observed  exceptions  enough  to  lead  you  to  listen 
with  patience  to  a  few  timely  cautions. 

Let  me  warn  you  that  you  can  hardly  realize  the 
strength  of  the  temptations  which  will  assail  you  in  ac- 
tual life.  Inexperienced,  dwelling  among  strangers, 
possessed  of  so  scanty  means  that  every  step  forward, 
even  the  shortest,  is  of  vital  importance,  that  even  the 
slenderest  opportunity  must  be  seized  with  avidity,  you 
may  find  yourself  surrounded  with  men  of  talent,  breed- 
ing, education  and  experience,  who  with  the  stings  of 
wit,  ridicule  your  scruples  and  tell  you  that  if  you  are  to 
compete  with  others  in  business  or  in  professional  life 
and  hold  your  own,  you  must  use  the  same  tools  that 
they  use.  For  a  time  you  may  not  yield  to  their  ridicule 
or  to  their  advice.  But  as  you  see  some  of  them  no  more 

-3- 


gifted  and  no  better  trained  than  you,  but  following 
their  unscrupulous  policy,  pass  you  in  the  race  for 
wealth  or  professional  success  or  political  preferment, 
there  may  be  hours  when  your  faith  in  honor  and  honesty 
as  a  rule  of  life  in  such  a  world  as  this  will  be  rudely 
shaken.  Unless  every  fibre  in  your  soul  is  firm  for  the 
right,  you  will  be  subject  to  tests  of  which  you  have  little 
conception  now.  The  least  yielding  to  a  stream  of  per- 
nicious influences  will  open  the  way  to  the  devastating 
torrent,  which  will  sweep  away  the  very  foundations  of 
your  character. 

We  will  not  stop  to  speak  of  contemptible  tricks 
which  may  attract  the  common  pettifogger.  But  what 
about  the  allurements  of  large  fees  when  as  a  lawyer  you 
have  so  risen  in  reputation  for  sharpness  that  you  are 
bribed  to  find  some  hole  in  the  law  through  which  your 
client  may  creep  when  you  know  that  he  richly  deserves 
to  be  convicted,  or  when  you  are  retained  to  shape  leg- 
islation by  artful  means  so  that  your  client  can  with  im- 
punity carry  on  his  business  in  dishonorable  and  dis- 
honest ways. 

What  is  to  befall  the  physician  who  has  taken  his 
Hippocratic  oath  as  he  set  out  on  his  career  and  has 
made  eloquent  speeches  on  professional  honor  and  obli- 
gations and  after  a  few  years  of  hard  work  crowned  with 
meagre  success  sees  the  road  to  wealth  opened  by  a  re- 
sort to  quackery  or  nostrums  useless  or  harmful,  a  road 
on  which  hundreds  have  preceded  him.  Will  he  try  to 
soothe  his  conscience  with  the  familiar  remark  that  fools 
must  be  treated  according  to  their  folly,  and  that  there 
is  nothing  too  extraordinary  for  some  men  to  believe  on 
two  subjects,  namely,  medical  theories  and  religious  be- 
liefs. For  physicians  and  religious  teachers  deliberately 
to  stake  their  success  on  an  appeal  to  these  infirmities 
by  practices  and  teachings  which  they  know  to  have  no 
foundation  in  truth  history  shows  to  have  been  discour- 
agingly  common  in  the  past,  even  in  the  case  of  men 
whose  early  life  would  h<we  led  us  to  expect  better 


UN; 


things  from  them.       It  may  not  be  amiss   to   call   your 
attention  now  to  the  danger  posts  on  your  path. 

Not  a  few  of  you  are  liable  to  be  drawn  into  news- 
paper life.  The  pursuit  is  most  honorable  and  useful, 
but  furnishes  stringent  tests  of  character.  To  suffer 
one's  self  to  be  led  by  high  remuneration  or  by  the  dic- 
tates of  party  leaders  to  take  up  the  advocacy  of  doc- 
trines or  policies,  in  which  one  does  not  believe,  is  a 
most  demoralizing  habit.  Life  is  not  worth  having  if  it  is 
to  be  maintained  by  systematic  hypocrisy.  If  one  is 
proprietor  or  manager  and  allows  his  counting  room  to 
control  his  columns,  especially  if  he  surrenders  his  space 
to  pernicious  advertisements,  he  may  plead  the  example 
of  alas !  too  many  papers  which  have  large  circulation, 
but  he  must  remember  that  he  forfeits  the  approbation 
of  his  pure  and  right-minded  readers. 

Many  of  you  will  be  called  into  the  activities  of 
political  life.  It  is  a  matter  for  congratulation  that  an 
increasing  number  of  educated  men,  actuated  by  the 
highest  and  most  patriotic  motives,  are  willing  to  give  a 
portion  of  their  time  and  energy  to  public  affairs.  If  our 
republican  system  of  government  is  to  succeed,  it  must 
have  the  services  of  such  men,  who  seek  the  public  good 
rather  than  mere  personal  advantage  to  themselves. 
Therefore  I  urge  you  to  do  your  full  part  in  all  legitimate 
ways  to  secure  the  enactment  and  execution  of  benefi- 
cent laws,  and  to  a  reasonable  extent  to  accept  such 
responsible  positions  as  your  fellow- citizens  may  invite 
you  to.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  office-hold- 
ing, and  still  more  office -seeking,  is  not  the  only  way  to 
be  of  service  to  one's  party  or  to  the  country.  Many  a 
man  who  never  leaves  the  ranks  of  the  private  citizen  is  j 
of  more  service  to  his  party  and  to  his  country  by  the 
conscientious  and  vigilant  discharge  of  the  duties  of  citi- 
zenship than  his  neighbor  who  is  inert,  unless  he  is 
chosen  to  some  office.  Illustrations  of  this  truth  are 
familiar  to  every  careful  observer  of  political  life. 

But  those  of  you  who   aspire   to,    or   who   obtain 


without  special  effort  on  your  part,  political  station,  are 
likely  to  find  yourself  exposed  to  temptation  which  will 
test  your  virtue  of  what  sort  it  is.  In  order  to  secure 
your  election  you  will  find  yourself  urged  by  some  of 
your  friends  who  have  had  more  experience  than  you  to 
adopt  measures  at  which  your  conscience  or  your  sense 
of  propriety  and  decency  revolts.  Once  elected,  you 
will  find  yourself  besieged  by  designing  men  to  favor 
legislation  which  on  its  face  appears  innocent,  but  which 
really  opens  the  way  for  them  to  accomplish  nefarious 
ends.  You  may  soon  learn  what  is  the  tyranny  of  party, 
if  on  good  scruples  you  hesitate  to  follow  its  bidding  on 
any  measure.  You  will  soon  be  taught  that  if  you  ex- 
pect any  of  the  beneficent  acts  which  you  have  proposed 
to  be  adopted  you  must  be  prepared  to  vote  for  certain 
measures  desired  by  other  men  which  you  do  not  ap- 
prove. You  will  be  asked  to  put  your  conscience  or 
your  judgment  into  the  market  for  a  trade.  1  say  nothing 
of  the  grosser  modes  of  attack  on  your  conscience  or  your 
judgment  by  bribery  or  promises  of  promotion,  which  -I 
trust  your  reputation  for  honesty  will  make  it  impossible 
for  them  to  think  of  in  your  case,  although  you  may  wit- 
ness it  in  other  cases.  But  the  possibilities  i  have  nam- 
ed indicate  of  what  stuff  you  should  be  made  to  meet 
with  a  clean  heart  the  perils  to  which  you  may  be  expos- 
ed. It  is  clear  that  a  professional  office-seeker,  who  re- 
gards the  procuring  and  retention  of  office  as  his  main 
object,  is  feebly  equipped  to  meet  them.  He  isvulner- 
able  at  a  thousand  points.  He  speedily  loses  his  inde- 
pendence, if  not  his  self-respect.  This  is  why  young 
graduates  should,  if  possible,  avoid  accepting  clerkships 
in  the  departments  at  Washington.  They  there  earn 
just  enough  to  make  them  content  with  that  sort  of  life, 
and  if  they  have  not  much  energy  they  remain  stranded 
there  all  their  days  and  end  their  career  just  where  they 
began. 

I  have  not  pointed  out  the  temptations  which  may  be- 
set you  in  the  various  callings  in  life  to  dishearten   you, 


but  only  to  caution  you.  I  take  an  optimistic,  not  a 
pessimistic  view  of  life  in  our  nation.  The  lawyer  of 
fair  ability,  of  industry,  and  of  character  is  sure  to  be 
recognized  and  respected  in  due  time.  The  physician  of 
intelligence,  of  fidelity  to  his  patients,  of  pleasing  ad- 
dress and  of  good  morals  is  certain  to  be  in  demand  and 
to  bind  to  him  the  families  he  serves  by  the  dearest  ties. 
"~The  editor  who  loves  veracity  more  than  sensationalism 
and  purity  in  his  columns  more  than  the  ill-gotten  gains 
of  salacious  advertisements  is  assured  of  influence  in  a 
decent  community.  The  man  on  whom  political  office  is 
thrust  by  his  fellow-citizens  because  of  his  intellectual 
and  moral  worth  dwells  in  an  atmosphere  quite  above 
the  vulgar  and  nauseous  temptations  which  captivate  the 
professional  office-seeker,  and  when  he  finishes  his 
career  leaves  an  honored  name  behind  him.  The  path  to 
a  successful  and  worthy  future  is  open  to  every  one  of 
you.  To  most  of  you  great  wealth  and  great  fame  may 
be  denied.  But  a  life  of  usefulness,  a  fair  share  of  this 
world's  reward  and  a  stainless  reputation  are  within  the 
reach  of  every  one  of  you.  And  with  these  assured, 
why  should  not  all  be  content  today  and  go  forth  with 
brave  and  cheerful  hearts  to  face  the  world  ? 

The  present  reaction  of  indignation  against  the  public 
iniquities  which  have  recently  flooded  the  land  have 
borne  the  great  mass  of  our  people  on  to  a  moral  height 
which  they  have  seldom  attained.  Never  was  there  a 
time  when  a  young  man  who  wishes  to  dedicate  his  life 
to  honor  and  truth  was  more  certain  to  find  a  public  wel- 
coming him  heartily  to  their  service.  You  are  embarking 
on  your  lives  when  the  tide  of  righteousness  is  rising  to 
its  flood.  Plunge  boldly  in  and  stake  your  all  on  the 
triumph  of  truth.  Let  us  see  a  whole  generation  of  the 
young  pledging  their  lives  to  honesty  and  nobility,  and 
the  world  will  with  shouts  of  rejoicing  stretch  out  their 
arms  to  welcome  them.  Especially  would  we  rejoice  to 
see  them  pouring  out  of  these  halls  and  plunging  into  the 


battle  of  life  bearing  aloft  the  white  shield  of  honor  and 
looking  with  confidence  for  victory. 

It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  say  that,  if  he  who  is  to 
lead  the  worthy  life  is  called  to  be  honest  with  men,  still 
more  is  he  called  to  be  honest  with  God.  Thou  shalt 
not  only  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  but  thou  sha't  first 
of  all  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart.  But 
how  many  there  are  who,  if  challenged,  will  confess  that 
they  have  not  given  up  the  belief  in  the  Fatherhood  of 
God,  and  who  yet  live  as  though  they  neither  had  nor 
sought  a  close  relationship  with  Him.  Receiving  all 
bounties  from  Him,  they  yet  live  as  though  they  had  no 
relationship  except  with  their  fellowmen.  They  may 
strive  to  be  not  only  honorable  in  their  dealings  with 
others,  but  even  to  be  generous  and  philanthropic.  But 
so  far  as  we  can  discover,  their  souls  give  no  sign  of  run- 
ning out  with  gratitude  towards  the  Giver  of  all  good 
gifts  to  them.  Some  justify  their  course  by  maintaining 
that  God  neither  asks  nor  desires  anything  of  them  except 
that  they  shall  deal  justly  and  kindly  with  their  fellows. 
No  doubt  that  is  well  pleasing  in  His  sight  and  must  form 
a  part  of  every  well-ordered  life. 

But  if  we  are  to  take  the  example  and  teachings  of 
Jesus  as  our  guide,  this  is  by  no  means  the  whole  of  our 
privilege  or  of  our  duty.  This  loving  Father  is  nigh  unto 
us,  even  in  our  hearts,  if  we  will  admit  Him.  He  de- 
lights to  have  us  make  known  our  requests  to  Him  in 
sincere  petition.  He  is  pleased  to  have  us  commune  with 
Him  and  seek  for  his  blessing  upon  us  and  evince  our 
gratitude  to  Him  by  word  and  by  deed.  Not  that  he  asks 
to  be  placated  by  the  blood  of  goats  and  of  rams,  but  that 
he  cannot  be  a  Father  without  desiring  the  sincere  and 
filial  love  of  his  children,  and  that  love  cannot  exist  with- 
out seeking  and  finding  some  form  of  expression. 

But  are  there  not  some  befoie  me  who  would  be  slow 
to  admit  that  they  do  not  cherish  filial  love,  yet  who  are 
slow  to  manifest  it?  This  is  a  period  when  there  are  so 
many  questionings  concerning  creed  and  dogma,  when 


so  many  forms  of  expressing  belief  venerable  by  cen- 
turies of  use  have  become  emptied  of  their  meaning  to 
some  of  you,  when  your  perceptions  of  your  relations  to 
God  have  been  so  dimmed  by  confusing  discussions  in 
philosophy,  in  science,  in  theology,  that  you  are  hesitant 
about  making  affirmations  on  religious  themes.  All  this 
we  can  understand.  But  after  all  is  there  anything  puz- 
zling in  the  simple  relation  of  you  the  child  to  God,  your 
loving  Father.  And  is  there  any  valid  excuse  for  your 
failing  to  recognize  this  relation  sincerely,  honestly, 
gratefully,  in  your  daily  walk  and  conversation. 

You  are  about  to  step  out  into  a  world,  of  which  you 
know  but  little.  No  one  can  see  what  lies  upon  his 
pathway  for  even  a  day.  The  loving  Father  waits  at  the 
threshold  which  you  are  to  cross  today  to  take  you  by 
the  hand  and  help  you  on  in  your  journey.  No  learning 
which  you  have  gathered,  no  skill  which  you  have  ac- 
quired, no  friendship  which  you  have  won,  can  take  the 
place  of  the  gracious  help  which  He  is  ready  to  bestow 
on  every  one  who  opens  his  heart  to  His  divine  ap- 
proaches and  honestly  trusts  to  His  blessed  guidance. 
As  we  part  here  on  this  threshold  today,  may  I  not  ask 
you  to  take  this  simple  question  with  you  into  life,  nay 
through  life,  "Is  it  so  important  for  you  to  be  absolute- 
ly honest  in  any  other  relation  of  your  soul  as  in  your 
relation  to  your  Heavenly  Father?" 

My  friends  I  should  be  sorry  to  have  you  listen  to 
these  parting  words  of  mine  without  assuring  you  that 
the  parting  with  you  of  myself  and  your  other  teachers 
is  not  merely  formal  and  ceremonious.  You  have  won 
during  your  years  of  association  with  us  and  will  ever 
retain  our  affectionate  interest  in  your  welfare.  We 
trust  that  it  will  be  our  good  fortune  to  retain  some 
pleasant  place  in  your  memories. 

This  year  has  been  unusually  calamitous  to  the  Uni- 
versity Senate.  During  the  last  few  months  three  of  our 
professors  have  been  suddenly  snatched  from  us  by 
death:  dePont,  that  charming  gentleman,  of  the  noblest 

-9- 


French  breeding  and  refinement;  Pattengill,  whose  thor- 
ough instruction  in  the  Greek  tongue  formed  an  epoch  in 
the  intellectual  life  of  every  one  of  you  who  had  the 
good  fortune  to  receive  it;  Russell,  the  brave  explorer 
and  charming  writer  whose  works  have  carried  his  name 
and  that  of  the  University  throughout  the  scientific 
world,  these  spring  months  have  robbed  us  of  them  all. 
These  events  cannot  but  remind  us,  even  in  these  joy- 
ous days,  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  future  even  for  you 
in  your  vigor  and  strength.  But  we  wish  to  assure  every 
one  of  you,  whether  Providence  grants  you  a  longer  or  a 
brief  career,  we  shall  follow  you  in  all  your  work  with 
the  warmest  sympathy  and  with  the  most  ardent  hopes 
for  your  highest  success.  The  strength  and  the  pros- 
perity of  the  University  are  found  in  the  character  and 
the  lives  of  her  sons  and  daughters.  Remember  that 
you  go  forth  with  this  high  commission,  by  your  careers 
to  help  build  the  University  of  the  future.  Therefore  be 
assured  that  as  she  parts  with  you  this  week,  her  choic- 
est benedictions  fall  upon  you  all. 

AJL 


—10— 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


REC'D  LD 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


YC 


30707 


